Tsunami Photos

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a system of six buoys that are called the Deep-Ocean Assesment and Reporting of Tsunami, or DART. Three are located along the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, 2 are off the Washington/Oregon coasts, and 1 along the Equator.
The sensing devices on these buoys contain pressure sensors for determining a wave's size by gauging the weight of the water column passing over it. This information is relayed to the surface buoy and then to a satellite by modems. The satellite then beams the information to the two Tsunami Warning Centers in Alaska and Hawaii.

By mid 2007 NOOA will deploy 32 new DART buoys to monitor activity throughout the entire Pacific, Atlantic and Caribbean.

Learn more about NOAA’s tsunami warning system at: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Dart/dart.shtml

Click on the photos for a larger view.

Photos courtesy of NOAA.